First school football match

At my son’s school, they don’t start playing football until Year 9. I don’t know if that’s something unique to his school, to grammar schools or to schools in this area. The word on the street in Years 7 and 8 was that you had to choose either football or rugby in Year 9. That would have been a tough choice for my son, but he would have opted to stick with rugby at school and football with his club.

Luckily, that proved to be duff information. In Year 9, they play rugby until Christmas, then they play football.

I’ll be honest, I was quite excited about this. My son is good at rugby, but he’s better at football. They didn’t have much time to prepare – one lunchtime training session before the team was picked, then one more lunchtime session before their first game.

I’m pleased to say that my son was chosen for the A team – and as striker, the position he plays for his club team.

The first school football match was an away game, but we weren’t going to miss it. Although we did miss the start. We arrived to see the opposition running rings round my son’s team. The team might have individually been good players, but they had never played together. We asked the linesman what the score was. Our team was winning. Who scored?

‘The tall kid over there.’

YES! My son.

The opposition continued to run rings around my son’s team. They equalised and then they scored again.

But in the second half, my son’s team came to life. My son scored,

Shortly afterwards, he scored again.

A hat-trick – in the team’s very first game!

They were 3-2 up.

Sadly the opposition equalised not long before the end of the game, from a free kick. And, just before the end of the game, they scored again.

My son’s team had lost 4-3. But it was their first ever game, their first time ever playing as a team.

And my son had scored a hat-trick.

It was a very good first school football match, with a lot to be proud of. I’m so glad we went to watch the away game and I’m looking forward to the rest of the season. I’m sure there will be a few wins to come.

 

 

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